Founder Credibility Page · Bengaluru, India

India's Farms Are Ready.
Families Can't Find Them.

Farmpass is building India's first curated farm experience marketplace — connecting Bengaluru families with real fruit-picking, harvesting, and rural day experiences within 100 km. Think Airbnb, but for farms.

$0M India agri-tourism market 2024 *
0M+ Bengaluru metro population *
0B+ India domestic trips taken in 2024 *
0% CAGR Market growing through 2033 *
MVP Building in <1 month · Domain live
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🌿 The Gap

A $4.9B Opportunity
With No Clear Front Door

India has millions of farms. Bengaluru has millions of families craving real outdoor experiences. But the discovery layer is completely broken — farms exist in isolation, families search blindly, and no one captures the trust needed to book.

🔍

Discovery is Broken

No unified platform exists for Bengaluru families to browse and book verified farm experiences. Farms rely on word-of-mouth and scattered Google results.

0 dedicated Bengaluru-first farm booking platforms *
🛡️

No Trust Layer Exists

Urban families with young children won't book from a WhatsApp number. Without verified listings, photos, and reviews, conversion stays near zero.

61% urban Indian consumers aware of food origins / organic *
🌾

Farmers Are Underearning

Agri-tourism is an untapped income stream for Karnataka farms. Studies show it can increase farm income by 50% — but most farmers lack the marketing reach.

50% income uplift possible through agri-tourism for Karnataka farms *
Metric India (Current) USA / Europe Gap
Agri-tourism market size $1.18B (2024) $9B+ (USA alone) 8× smaller, same population
Revenue per active farm/year ₹1–2L (informal) $12,000–15,000 (Harvest Hosts avg) 10× underperforming
Dedicated booking platforms 1–2 (Maharashtra-only) Harvest Hosts, Farm Stay UK, GetYourGuide Effectively zero for Bengaluru
Digital booking penetration <5% 40–60% Massive untapped shift ahead
Average farm income from tourism ₹5,000–10,000/mo ₹80,000–1,00,000/mo 15× uplift possible

The Farmpass Opportunity

A ₹4,000 Crore Market With No Dedicated Marketplace

$0M Projected India market by 2033 *
0% Annual CAGR (IMARC, 2025–2033) *
0+ Farms within 100 km of Bengaluru *
0K+ Target families in Bengaluru *
📊 Market Size

Massive, Growing, Under-Served

India's agri-tourism market is one of the fastest-growing segments in experiential travel, backed by government policy, rising middle-class spending, and a structural shift in how urban families want to spend weekends.

TAM · Total Addressable
$4.9B
India Agri-Tourism by 2033
$1.18B in 2024, growing at 17.9% CAGR. Broader experiential travel opportunity exceeds $10B by 2030. *
SAM · Serviceable Market
₹900 Cr
Karnataka Weekend Experiences
500K+ urban families seeking weekend outdoor experiences. 200K estimated bookings/year at ₹3,000–5,000 across Karnataka. *
SOM · 3-Year Target
₹50 Cr
Farmpass Realistic Capture
100 farms · 15K monthly bookings · ₹3,000 GMV = ₹45 Cr GMV, ₹5.4 Cr revenue at 12% commission.
📱

Digital-First Booking Generation

63% of Indian travelers plan to increase travel spend. * Families aged 31–45 — 51% of the family travel market — are mobile-first, app-comfortable bookers.

🌱

Farm-to-Table Consciousness

Organic food growing at 22% CAGR — 61% of metro consumers care about food origins. Farm visits are the live version of the education parents want for their kids.

🏛️

Karnataka Tourism Policy 2024–2029

Agri-tourism is a designated "cornerstone" of state strategy. Subsidies and incentives for farms — de-risking Farmpass's supply acquisition from day one.

💰

India Middle-Class Travel Boom

India's middle class is projected to drive a global $15T leisure travel boom. Farm stays and experiential day trips are the fastest-growing sub-segment.

🚀 The Solution

Farmpass — Where Bengaluru
Meets the Farm

Not another travel listing site. A curated, trust-first, instant-booking marketplace that makes discovering and visiting a farm as easy as ordering a Swiggy delivery — for both families and farmers.

1

Browse Curated Farms

Filter by activity, distance, age-suitability, and season. Every listing has verified photos, a safety note, and a live crop calendar.

2

Book Instantly

Choose a slot, pay via Razorpay (UPI, card, or wallet). Instant confirmation, directions, and farmer contact. No WhatsApp chasing.

3

Arrive & Experience

Pick strawberries in Kolar. Harvest mangoes in Nandi Hills. Leave with a memory — and fresh produce. Review, repeat, tell your friends.

🗺️

Smart Farm Discovery

Maps-powered search by distance, crop type, and real-time seasonal availability.

Instant Booking + Razorpay

One-click booking via UPI, card, or wallet. Instant confirmation and auto-reminders. No DMs.

Verified Reviews + Trust Signals

Family reviews, verified photos, and safety checklists — built to get a parent to say yes.

📊

Farmer Dashboard

Calendar, capacity, pricing, earnings, and guest communication — all in one place.

🌾

Crop Calendar

Month-by-month guide to what's in season across all farms — plan around mango harvest or strawberry season.

👨‍👩‍👧

Family-First Design

Age suitability tags, accessibility info, and "suitable for kids 5–12" confidence signals on every listing.

The Two-Sided Flywheel

As more farms join → more variety attracts more families → more bookings → happier farmers → better listings → more farms join. The moat builds itself.

More Farms
More Variety
More Families
More Bookings
Happier Farmers
Better Listings

Competitive Landscape

Platform Bengaluru Focus Day Visits Instant Booking Fruit Picking Family-First
🌾 Farmpass (us) ✓ Primary ✓ Core ✓ Built-in ✓ Hero ✓ Designed for
Tour De Farm ✗ Maharashtra ~ Some ✗ Inquiry only ✗ Minimal ~ Generic
MakeMyTrip / OYO ~ Partial ✗ Stays only ✓ Yes ✗ No ~ Generic
Individual Farm Sites ~ Some ✓ Yes ✗ Call/WhatsApp ~ Some ✗ No
Airbnb Experiences ~ Limited ~ Some ✓ Yes ✗ Rare ~ Generic
⚡ Why Now

Five Tailwinds
Converging Right Now

The conditions that make Farmpass possible — and make now the right moment to build it — are the result of five macro forces aligning simultaneously.

01

Post-COVID Domestic Travel Has Fully Rebounded

India recorded 3B domestic trips in 2024, with spending 22% above pre-COVID levels. Families are actively choosing nature and open spaces — experience-led weekend getaways are the fastest-growing travel category.

3B domestic trips · spending 22% above pre-COVID · EY/IBEF *
02

Bengaluru Middle-Class Families Are Ready to Spend

India's highest concentration of dual-income tech families — with ₹4,000–8,000 weekend budgets and kids who need real-world experiences. Farm visits at ₹2,000–4,000 are a natural fit.

14M Bengaluru metro · 51% of family travel market aged 31–45 *
03

UPI Makes Rural Booking Infrastructure-Free

38% of rural India uses UPI as their primary payment mode. Farmers can accept instant digital bookings with just a phone — no hardware, no POS terminal. The infrastructure barrier that once blocked this model no longer exists.

16.58B UPI transactions/month · 38% rural adoption *
04

Karnataka Government Is Backing Agri-Tourism

The Karnataka Tourism Policy 2024–2029 designates agri-tourism a "cornerstone" of state strategy, offering subsidies for farm tourism infrastructure. Farmpass can acquire farm supply with government support — de-risking the cold-start problem.

Karnataka Tourism Policy 2024–2029 · agri-tourism a cornerstone *
05

Farm-to-Table Is Mainstream — Families Want the Experience

India's organic food market grows at 22% CAGR. 61% of metro consumers care about food origins. Urban parents want their children to understand where food comes from — a farm visit is the live version of that conversation.

22% CAGR organic market · 61% metro organic awareness *
📍 Traction

Everything in Place to Build

This is not a whiteboard idea. The founder has done the research, built the farmer relationships, and defined the product. The MVP is being built now with a clear 90-day plan.

✓ Done

Domain purchased: farmpass.in is live
Deep market research on India agri-tourism, Karnataka farms, Bengaluru families
Personal farmer relationships established in Kolar, Nandi Hills, and Hosur regions
Competitive landscape mapped — identified the clear white space
Personally experienced farm visits in India and internationally — first-hand problem validation
Tech stack defined: React/Next.js + Supabase + Razorpay + Google Maps
Unit economics modelled, commission structure defined (12% of GMV)
Self-funded runway secured: ₹2–10L personal savings committed

⚡ Building Now

MVP development — core booking flow, farm listings, Razorpay integration
Onboarding 5 pilot farms (Bangalore Berry Company model + 4 others)
Farm photography and listing content creation for pilot farms
Farmer dashboard: calendar management, booking notifications, earnings view
Customer-facing booking flow: browse → select slot → pay → confirm
Legal: Terms, farmer agreements, and booking policy drafted
Building advisor network — seeking 2–3 domain-specific mentors
Community outreach — Bengaluru parenting Facebook groups, Namma Bengaluru communities

30 / 60 / 90 Day Roadmap

Day 1–30

Build & Seed

  • MVP live on farmpass.in
  • 5 farms onboarded in Kolar + Nandi Hills
  • First 50 bookings targeted
  • Razorpay payouts working end-to-end
  • Launch on WhatsApp communities + Instagram
Day 31–60

Learn & Grow

  • 10 farms active, 2 new regions
  • Review system live, first 20+ reviews
  • Repeat booking data from pilot users
  • Seasonal crop calendar published
  • First media mention or blog feature
Day 61–90

Scale & Repeat

  • 20 farms active across Karnataka
  • ₹4.3L/month revenue run-rate
  • Farmer income stories documented
  • Seed raise initiated (if ready)
  • Next city (Hyderabad/Pune) research begins
📐 Unit Economics

The Numbers Work —
For Everyone

A simple, lean business model: Farmpass takes 12% commission on every booking. No upfront fees for farmers. No subscription for families. Revenue only flows when value is created.

Per Booking
₹3,000
4 people × ₹750/person
= ₹360 Farmpass revenue (12%)
Per Farm / Month
₹21,600
60 bookings/month
= ₹21,600 Farmpass revenue
At 20 Farms (Month 6)
₹4.32L
Monthly recurring revenue
₹51.8L annualised

Booking Economics

Avg family size 4 people
Price per person ₹750
Booking GMV ₹3,000
Commission (12%) ₹360
Farmer keeps ₹2,640

LTV & CAC Estimate

Visits per family/year
Annual GMV per family ₹9,000
Farmpass LTV (12%) ₹1,080/yr
Est. CAC (India apps) ₹400–600
LTV : CAC Ratio 1.8× Yr 1 · 5.4× Yr 3

Farm-Side Math

Bookings/weekend 15
Bookings/month 60
Gross farm revenue ₹1,80,000/mo
After Farmpass (88%) ₹1,58,400/mo
Avg farmer income today ₹10,218/mo
🧑‍🌾

The Farmer Impact Story

The average Indian farmer earns ~₹10,218/month from crops alone (Government of India data *). With just 60 bookings/month through Farmpass, a participating farm earns an additional ₹1.58L/month — a 15× income uplift from the tourism channel alone. This is the flywheel: when farmers earn more, they invest in better experiences, which drives more bookings, which helps more families find real India.

15× income uplift potential per farm
🤝 Looking For

Not Raising Money.
Seeking Wisdom.

Farmpass is self-funded and building. What would accelerate us most right now is not capital — it's experienced people who've done this before and are willing to exchange their hard-won knowledge for early influence over something that matters.

🔄

Marketplace Veterans

You've built or scaled a two-sided marketplace in India — hospitality, mobility, food, or services. You know the cold-start problem and how to get through it.

🌾

Agri-Business & Rural Economy

You understand how Indian farmers make decisions and how to structure win-win agreements in rural Karnataka. You know the policy landscape and informal trust networks.

🌆

Bengaluru Consumer Brand Builders

You've built a brand Bengaluru families love. You know how to reach the 30–42 year old dual-income parent — their channels, vocabulary, and what makes them book again.

🌱

India Startup Ecosystem Connectors

You know the angels who care about rural India, the accelerators focused on sustainable business, and the government officials working on agri-tourism. Introductions matter.

Let's Have a Conversation

If you see the vision, know someone who does, or just want to ask a hard question — that email below is a real person who will respond.

📬 Email the Founder    🌐 Visit farmpass.in
👤 The Founder
Thilak Shankarappa, Founder of Farmpass

Thilak Shankarappa

Founder & CEO · Devanahalli, Karnataka
🥭 Mango Orchards 🍇 Grape Vineyards 🗺️ Esri · 6 yrs 🌾 Farming Family 🎓 MS CS

I'm Not Just Building For Farmers. I Am One.

I grew up in a farming family in a village near Devanahalli — 30 km from the heart of Bengaluru. My family owns mango orchards and grape vineyards. I know what it means to have land that produces something beautiful, and no reliable way to connect it with the city families who would love to experience it.

After a Master's in Computer Science from Cal State Fullerton, I spent 6 years at Esri in California — the world leader in geospatial software — working in digital marketing and business applications, sitting inside a company obsessed with how location shapes decisions. Before that, I was at The Wonderful Company, one of America's largest agricultural brands (POM, Halos, Wonderful Pistachios), where I got close to how large-scale agriculture businesses operate. I came back to India in 2024 and started Parvatha Technologies to solve problems I understand from both sides of the fence — literally.

Farmpass is the intersection of everything I am: a farmer's son who can build the technology, who has the land relationships, and who has watched global agri-businesses scale. No one else in India is standing at this exact crossroads.

Unfair Advantages

Supply-side trust from day one: my own orchards and family farm network near Devanahalli are the first listings — no cold outreach needed
6 years at Esri (world's leading GIS company): deep exposure to how location and geospatial data drives product decisions — directly relevant to farm discovery by distance
Experience at The Wonderful Company, a major US agricultural brand — shaped my understanding of how agriculture businesses operate and market themselves
Technical founder building now: full-stack product with React + Supabase + Razorpay already in progress, no agency dependency
Karnataka roots: deep local knowledge of Devanahalli, Nandi Hills, Kolar, and Hosur farm belts within 100 km of Bengaluru

Where I Need Guidance

  • How to structure farmer agreements to prevent disintermediation as we scale beyond family connections
  • Consumer brand building — turning a discovery platform into a trusted household name for Bengaluru families
  • Insurance and liability frameworks for family visits at third-party farm properties
  • The right early channels to reach urban parents (Instagram, parenting communities, school networks?)
  • Marketplace quality control without becoming too operations-heavy in the early stage
"Most marketplace founders understand either the supply side or the demand side. I wake up every morning and walk through mango orchards. I spent six years inside the world's leading location-intelligence company and worked alongside one of America's largest agricultural brands. Farmpass is not a theory I'm testing — it's a world I already live in."
🌍 Global Proof of Concept

This Model Has Already Worked. Elsewhere.

The Farmpass model is not a theory. International platforms have proven that connecting urban travellers with authentic farm experiences creates lasting, profitable, two-sided businesses at scale.

🇺🇸

Harvest Hosts (USA)

North America's largest private farm network. Started niche, scaled to 250K members spending $200M+ directly with local hosts.

250K+ members · $200M+ local revenue generated *
🇬🇧

Farm Stay UK

UK's dedicated farm experience marketplace. Proves urban families will seek and pay for verified farm experiences — and that farmers need a trusted platform.

1,000+ farm hosts · millions of annual visitor days
🇮🇳

India — The White Space

No Bengaluru-first, family-first, instantly-bookable farm platform exists. India has 6× the UK's population, a faster-growing middle class, and more farms within city range.

0 dedicated Bengaluru-first farm experience platforms